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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24036160">dance (like no one is watching)</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/wollfgang/pseuds/wollfgang'>wollfgang</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>L.A. By Night Fluff Fest 2020 [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>L.A. By Night (Web Series)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Boys Being Boys, Dancing, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Jasper teaches X to moonwalk, L.A by Night Fluff Fest 2020, Missing Scene</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 15:27:25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,824</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24036160</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/wollfgang/pseuds/wollfgang</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Jasper knows he's not good at this. Dancing. He wasn't in his previous human existence and he isn’t now. But this is the boon X had asked for and it had been set aside for too long.</p>
<p>He gathers up his equipment and leaves the haven with a sweet, leisurely kiss from Eva and the parting words for him to "have fun with X."</p>
<p>He has the distant suspicion that she's teasing him.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Jasper Heartwood &amp; X</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>L.A. By Night Fluff Fest 2020 [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1731271</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>9</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>17</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>dance (like no one is watching)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>LA by Night Fluff Fest 2020<br/>Prompt 2 - Gift Giving</p>
<p>It's three hours late but here it is!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Jasper knows he's not good at this. Dancing. He wasn't in his previous human existence and he isn’t now. But this is the boon X had asked for and it had been set aside for too long. Postponed out of necessity at first. It was difficult to teach someone to moonwalk when in torpor, strung up on the Hollywood sign, after all. Then X had his own difficulties to deal with. Now, though, Jasper has the time to devote to it and he intends to give his full effort, no matter how ridiculous the request.</p>
<p>Eva laughs at him as he pores over video tutorial after video tutorial in the free moments he finds between bouts of absolute peril, but her laughter is not unkind. It doesn't hurt, being a source of amusement for her, not like it would with anyone else. Having her here in his haven is more than he ever could have hoped for.</p>
<p>Eventually, she pulls him from his chair and dances with him, showing him how to shift his feet. This warped version of his body, with limbs pulled longer, sharper, is meant for violence – not grace. She coaxes it from him slowly and painstakingly. As for Eva, she glides across the floor as if she were floating, completely at ease.</p>
<p>It's... Nice. It's nice rewriting the memory of what happened to him at the Succubus Club. He replaces the fear and embarrassment with Eva dancing together, in his haven.</p>
<p>They've talked about it, what happened that night. What it was like having his will stripped away at Victoria's whim, Eva's own experiences. Dark shadows had rested in Eva's eyes as they shared secrets in the early hours of the night.</p>
<p>There are no shadows now. Her eyes are lit up and sparkling as she gently redirects his hips, no fear or disgust as she touches him. She deems his form good enough after plenty of practice and Jasper sends word to X to meet at the college. His phone buzzes.</p>
<p>X: "<strong>See you soon!!!!! [vampire emoji] [dancing man emoji]</strong>"</p>
<p>Jasper gathers up his equipment and leaves the haven with a sweet, leisurely kiss from Eva and the parting words for him to "have fun with X."</p>
<p>He has the distant suspicion that she's teasing him.</p>
<p>He steps out of his haven and vanishes from mortal sight. The walk to the college is pleasant. Avoiding people is easy when you’ve been doing it as long as Jasper has. <em>This </em>is what he's made for; slipping into narrow side roads and stalking across tall roofs with silent footsteps. He reaches his destination, dropping soundless onto the grass of the quad where X always loiters. The fountain splashes undisturbed nearby. No Malkavian taking a swim. Or a bath. Jasper’s honestly not sure which one it was.</p>
<p>"X?" Jasper murmurs, soft enough to keep from breaking his invisibility.</p>
<p>"I'm here!" a voice excitedly whispers back.</p>
<p>Jasper releases his obfuscation, phasing into visibility once more. X does the same. He’s got his dark, wild hair pulled back, but otherwise looks about the same as last Jasper had eyes on him.</p>
<p>“The theater’s this way.” Her jerks his head in the right direction and starts walking, awkwardly gripping the strap of his bag. X bounds after him.</p>
<p>"What's all this?" he asks, eyeing Jasper’s cargo.</p>
<p>Jasper's grip tightens. "Music. And stuff."</p>
<p>X nods earnestly. "Oh, right. Duh. Can't dance without music. Hey, do you have any hang drum?"</p>
<p>Jasper blinks at him. "I could...download some?"</p>
<p>"No, no," X flaps his hands at him. "Whatever you've got is fine."</p>
<p>They reach the theater, dark and empty. Jasper pulls out his keys, undoes the lock. The two of them stand there for an awkward moment; Jasper looming and X beaming at him, bouncing slightly on his toes.</p>
<p>"...Shall we go inside?" Jasper finally asks.</p>
<p>"Oh! Right. Yes, let's." He bows dramatically low. "After you, your grace."</p>
<p>Jasper snorts and pushes forward, letting X at his back. The door swings shut and locks behind them.</p>
<p>"So!" X asks, voice loud in the vacant hallway. "Where are we going?"</p>
<p>Jasper glances back at him. "To the dance studios."</p>
<p>"Oh. Right. That makes sense. Dancing. In the dance studios."</p>
<p>"I thought it would...be best."</p>
<p>It had been a struggle deciding whether to have X to his haven or not. Eva's presence there is still new and wonderful and <em>absolutely</em> an outlier. Inviting X there...as much as he would like to trust the other Kindred, Jasper's ever present paranoia eventually won out. The dance studio in the theater building of Griffith College was the next best location.</p>
<p>"Totally!" X doesn't seem put out by the location in the least.</p>
<p>“Here,” Jasper directs as they turn a corner and enter the smallest of the studio rooms. He clicks on the switch, flooding the room with bright fluorescent light. A mirror takes up one wall, the other lined with a waist high rail. Jasper sets his bag down, careful not to jar it, and unzips the catches, pulling his laptop out.</p>
<p>“So, it’s recommended for beginners to start in socks. According to my research, we-”</p>
<p>"You did research?" X looks somehow both delighted and horrified.</p>
<p>Jasper snaps his gaze up at X, indignant. "Of course I did research." He sets the laptop down on the table.</p>
<p>X looks at him, something knowing coming over his face, like a particularly smug cat. "Is <em>that</em> why it took you so long to get back to me about this?"</p>
<p>"...No," Jasper lies.</p>
<p>He opens the music program and pretends to be busy with it, refusing to meet X's gaze. X looks beyond thrilled.</p>
<p>“Are you wearing socks?” Jasper asks, looking down at X’s eye-searing colored crocs with some discrimination.</p>
<p>“I definitely could be.” X nods. “But I mean, really, what are socks but barriers between us and the natural world?”</p>
<p>Jasper snorts. “Barriers between you and friction?”</p>
<p>X looks off. Frowns. “I don’t like friction.”</p>
<p>“I know,” Jasper says patiently. “That’s why you need socks.”</p>
<p>X toes out of his crocs and, sure enough, he’s wearing socks. Mismatched, definitely have seen better days, would cause Nelli a <em>conniption </em>socks  — but socks nonetheless. Jasper starts unlacing his own boots. It's a more involved process than the removal of X’s slip on shoes, but Jasper loves these boots, and them aside. His own socks are like the rest of his outfit, black and utilitarian.</p>
<p>Jasper pulls up the program and some of the tutorials he’d watched on the laptop. He pauses for a moment, "Do you mind if I ask...” he looks over at X. “Why moonwalking? You could have asked for anything."</p>
<p>"Oh.” X blinks. “Well, I mean, I can do a mean shimmy." X demonstrates, shoulders moving. "But I heard you moonwalked at the Succubus Club, and I've always wanted to learn how. Besides, looking after Annabelle while you were gone wasn't that bad. I didn't need to ask for anything big. She's like a puppy! Like a really angry, punchy puppy."</p>
<p>"You heard about the Succubus Club." His mouth thins, uncomfortable.</p>
<p>"Well yeah, everyone has." X looks at him, guileless.</p>
<p>"I wasn't dancing under my own free will. She made me do it." Jasper hits a key a little too hard and takes a deep breath before he accidentally breaks something. "I don't particularly enjoy embarrassing myself in front of everyone." It comes out with more vitriol than he'd intended.</p>
<p>"Oh. <em>OH</em>. Oh, I didn't know that Jasper." X's distress is genuine and deep. "I’m sorry, I- I didn't ask you this to be cruel-"</p>
<p>"I know," Jasper cuts him off with a growl. X is a lot of things, but he's not cruel, not naturally, not on his own. "I know you didn't."</p>
<p>X's words speed up, as if in a rush to leave his mouth, stumbling out. "It's okay, you don't have to do it, Jasper. I'm not going to make you. Forget the favor, okay? I just thought it would be fun, you know? But clearly I got that wrong. I get things wrong sometimes. Really, it's okay, we don't have to- I can go."</p>
<p>"No," Jasper says, just a little too loud. He lowers his voice. "No, it's fine."</p>
<p>X looks at him, anxious. "Are you sure? Cause I can pick something else."</p>
<p>"Yeah. I don't mind." Just as it’s different with Eva, it’s different with X, although not in the same way.</p>
<p>"Really?" X has never more resembled the puppy he accuses Annabelle of being. All big brown eyes and imploring.</p>
<p>"Yeah."  Jasper straightens. He braces his hands against his back as he stretches a little, sighing with satisfaction as his vertebrae pop. “All right, let’s start with putting one foot in front of the other.”</p>
<p>X grins. “I can do that.”</p>
<p>X is a decent student, for all that Jasper is a somewhat hapless teacher. X has got a better sense of innate rhythm. And maybe they get distracted by figuring out how far they can slide across the floor in the socks — Jasper can travel the whole length of the room — and then how <em>fast </em>they can slide — until X smacks a little too hard into the wall — rather than dancing, but the air is filled with hang drums and X’s laughter. By the end of it, X can fashion a fairly decent moonwalk, better than Jasper's anyway, and his face hurts from the unaccustomed smiling.</p>
<p>“And so the student...” X says, in a dramatic, accented tone. “Becomes the master.” He bows deeply toward him. Jasper watches the procession with reluctant amusement.</p>
<p>“You no longer need me, young grasshopper,” Jasper concedes with the slightest tilt of his head.</p>
<p>X grins with delight at Jasper playing along, but settles into a sweet happiness. "Thank you for teaching me, Jasper. I'm glad you didn't mind."</p>
<p>"It was...” A low breath huffs out of him. “Fun," he admits. It felt like hanging out, like he used to when he was young, before everything went to shit. He almost forgot what it was like.</p>
<p>"I'm glad we're friends." X beams at him.</p>
<p>"Yeah," Jasper laughs, the sound low and cracked from disuse.</p>
<p>X gasps softly, joy suffusing across his expression. Jasper winces, realizing what he's confirmed.</p>
<p>X vibrates with excitement. "<em>Best</em> friends?"</p>
<p>Jasper holds up a hand, but knows it's already too late. He's sentenced his fate. "Let's not get ahead of ourselves," he warns.</p>
<p>X grins, undeterred. "I learned how to moonwalk because <em>my best friend</em> Jasper taught me." He does a little spin.</p>
<p>Jasper sighs, but he can't quite help the way his mouth turns up at the edges. “Hey, X?”</p>
<p>X halts, limbs still swinging. “Yeah?”</p>
<p>Jasper inhales, quick. "I'll deny it if you ever tell anyone this, but..." Makes himself say it, despite how the vulnerability makes his skin crawl. “I’m glad we’re friends.”</p>
<p>“Yeah,” X says, eyes crinkling as he smiles. “Me, too.”</p>
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